Sunday 12 April 2015

Author Interview: Debbie Flint

Today it's my pleasure to welcome QVC presenter and Choc Lit author Debbie Flint to the blog to talk about her book Take a Chance on Me.

How did you manage to fit in writing time around your busy schedule on QVC?
Er… I didn’t sleep! Haha! Actually Hawaiian Affair/ Take a Chance on Me took three years to write, but very on and off – much more off! Hawaiian Escape and Hawaiian Retreat took six months but for both I’d booked a couple of writing retreats, escapes and workshops. So immersing myself in a story is my best solution to speedy writing, I’ve found. So since I do four shifts a week on QVC, I can join up two weeks and go away for six days or so without even using holiday. It’s a cool job and a great position to be in.

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest novel Take a Chance on Me?
Well it is a steamy romance, but as Choc Lit put it – ‘tastefully spicy’! Someone said it was ’50 shades of hot but with a great plot!’

Have you ever liked someone at work but know you can’t do anything about it? That’s what playboy billionaire Mac faces – and it’s all his own fault. At the same time Sadie wants to prove her horrible ex wrong – that she CAN succeed on her own in business. She goes on a glamorous trip to Monaco then on to Hawaii in a private jet, in her quest to achieve just that and gets more than she bargained for in Mac – a race to seal the deal in 30 days or his rival will steal it from under his nose. There’s a bit of a mystery/suspense sub-plot going on too. It’s quite different!

Sadie is a business woman and a single mum but wants to do her best in life, do you think it's difficult to achieve a home/work balance?  
Oh gosh yes! How many of us buy those books about balance and quadrants and bits of pie, yet still manage to go to bed with the washing still in the machine, two day old milk and no loo roll. When I was married it was harder, trying to please a man too. I guess being single for the teenage years for my two kids meant I could focus more on them – and on an importing business I was working on at the time, for a sports water from the US … sound familiar? ;-)

Can  you describe Sadie in 3 words?
Feisty, curvy, clever

This book was previously self-published under the title A Hawaiin Affair, how did the name change and contract with Choc Lit come about?
I was originally aiming for Mills and Boon, but their guidelines are very strict so when Mac began to emerge as a main character, I gravitated towards Choc Lit’s brief of being half about the man’s side of the story. Then I’d met lovely Lyn Vernham several times at Romantic Novelists Association events and workshops, so when I’d had some degree of self publishing success with Hawaiian Affair and had written the trilogy, I approached her and the book passed with flying colours! I think having nearly 100 five star reviews also helped. 

Hawaiian Affair has a prequel called ‘Hawaiian Escape’ – introducing Sadie and her quirky family, but sister Helen came tumbling out as I wrote, so I had to write her story in what became the sequel, ‘Hawaiian Retreat.’ I loved the whole process and each story has lot of merits. When Choc Lit decided to change it I think they wanted to encapsulate the Fifty Shades mood, hence the grey, and when the alternative ‘chick lit style’ title they were considering, ‘high heels and business deals’ didn’t work out, they told me it was going to be called ‘Take a Chance on Me.’ So maybe the other two would have Abba influenced titles too! Haha!

How important do you think the cover is when promoting your book?  
The cover is almost everything when all you’re faced with is a title and a cover. I find that it’s that ‘hot button’ moment – you have to attempt to get it all into the mood of the cover – how it makes people feel – and it’s certainly an art. I’ve got a lovely group of beta readers who help me make decisions about my books – and their choices have been make or break for many of my titles. I’ve written four full length novels now, and two anthologies, two novellas plus I’ve got three covers for stories in the offing, as it were, and all of them I used their valuable feedback for. I also use a professional designer – you can see the legs theme on many of my books here.

What can we expect from you next?  
Very. Good. Question.

I’m just working on a script I began with a friend of mine based on a true story from 100 years ago, but that’s not a romance so I’ll have to see where I go with it! I’ve hopefully got the paperback coming out later in the year for TACOM – fingers crossed! That moment of walking into a bookshop and seeing my own novel on the shelves is one I will truly relish! Also I have a flourishing online community for my non-fiction, ‘Till the Fat Lady Slims 2.0’ is a semi-autobiographical weight loss book and is also on QVC   - the Facebook support group of the same name is turning up some major successes (it’s a mindset , not a ‘diet’ as such and is helping a lot of people for whom diets just don’t work,) so I’m aiming to produce a new version of the book – version 2.1 probably! – in the run up to Xmas. Apart from that, the spin off from the Hawaiian Trilogy would also be in the pipeline – Helen’s friend Kate’s story about a ‘how to find a husband manual’ she finds in an attic…! Sign up to my newsletter on my website here to be the first to know!

How did you manage to fit in writing time around your busy schedule on QVC?
Er… I didn’t sleep! Haha! Actually Hawaiian Affair/ Take a Chance on Me took three years to write, but very on and off – much more off! Hawaiian Escape and Hawaiian Retreat took six months but for both I’d booked a couple of writing retreats, escapes and workshops. So immersing myself in a story is my best solution to speedy writing, I’ve found. So since I do four shifts a week on QVC, I can join up two weeks and go away for six days or so without even using holiday. It’s a cool job and a great position to be in.

What is the best writing advice you have ever received?
I went to see one of my favourite authors, Diana Gabaldon (‘Outlander’ series, now also just out on Amazon Prime) speaking last month at the Oxford Literary Festival and she says this –
Read
Write
Don’t stop

Julie Cohen, my superb mentor and skilled author (Richard And Judy author for Dear Thing) also had a top ten list of tips which began with ‘read’ and ‘write’ too, so I guess that’s pretty important, and somewhat obvious – but like Elizabeth Chadwick (historical author) says ‘you can’t edit a blank page’ – so best to actually get some words on it!

Are you a plotter or do you prefer to start writing and see where it takes you?
Bit of both really. Because I love scriptwriting, which is kind of the polar opposite, discipline wise, I often begin with an idea, sketch out an outline, start writing and see what emerges then after about three chapters, write a synopsis. That makes me think it all through. Which then gives me a framework to write from once I get stuck in. I do some character work too, so I know who I’m dealing with and what key things happen to them in their back story. Then if it changes as I go along, I know where it has to be tweaked to come back to the same end. Or a different one if inspiration strikes!

What would  you say is the hardest thing about writing?
Making myself get started.  That’s it really! Facebook and my copious blogs are the distraction! I write three a week, plus a newsletter, and help run four amazing facebook groups, so it’s full on! 

If you could write in a collaboration with another author, who would  you like to write with? 
Julie Cohen – without a shadow of a doubt – she’s the queen of show don’t tell and tells it how it is. She’s currently mentoring me for a piece of my writing and just said to rewrite the whole of chapter three. Sound advice – she’s usually spot on!

Do you get much spare time for reading?  And if so, does being a writer affect the way you see books as a reader? 
Yes and yes – even more so now I know so much more about writing, that I didn’t know before all the workshops, courses and retreats. I will happily leave a story if it annoys me so much – life’s too short. And spotting schoolboy errors sometimes even within quite successful authors’ books – is really annoying. Sometimes I have to turn my head off to allow myself to get engrossed. But if the story is good enough, that’s not hard at all. 

What’s the last book you’ve read that has made you cry?
I listen to a lot of audio books in the car and found that ‘A Breath of Snow and Ashes’ – book 6 (?) in the Outlander series, was very tear jerking. Set in 1770’ North Carolina with ex pat highlanders struggling to set up a new life amongst the Native American Indians and the fight for independence, there are frequent teary moments – the narrator, Davina Porter, is brilliant at emoting and making it come to life.

When you’ve finished writing a book, do you treat yourself to a reward?
Watch some catch up TV? Go on a spa break? Just mosey round the house and garden – whoo hooo!

Keeping in touch –
@debbieflint
www.debbieflint.com

Read it Write it Sell it blog is weekly , on my website, about writing, self publishing and industry news.

You know what they say about mixing business with pleasure … 

When the breakdown of her marriage leaves Sadie Turner a single mum, she vows that she will make it on her own. After all, why would a smart businesswoman with a PhD and the prospect of a life-changing deal on the horizon need a man?

But Sadie’s man-ban is tested to the limit when she travels to Monaco to meet her potential investor. There she encounters Mac, a rough and ready playboy billionaire who lives life in the fast lane – and that’s when the real adventure starts!

 But Sadie’s heart isn’t the only thing on the line. There’s also the business she’s worked so hard to make a success; the business that could so easily slip out of her grasp if she doesn’t seal the deal within thirty days …

 Previously self-published as Hawaiian Affair. Revised and edited by Choc Lit March 2015.

Buying links: 
Amazon UK http://goo.gl/o4Bhqm
Amazon US: http://goo.gl/8CLw73 

2 comments:

  1. Thank u for featuring me sweetie! Am sitting in a taxi cab in smoggy Beijing on my way to qvc china stint helping to train tv presenters for 3 weeks and this made my day! Hugs x

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  2. Lovely to find out more about you, Debbie. I'm really enjoying 'Take a Chance on Me' at the moment. Angela Britnell

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